{"id":22280,"date":"2022-01-14T14:56:04","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T19:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themagicforless.com\/tmflblog\/?p=22280"},"modified":"2023-04-19T13:46:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T17:46:31","slug":"testing-positive-at-the-port-before-disney-cruise-line-sailing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themagicforless.com\/tmflblog\/testing-positive-at-the-port-before-disney-cruise-line-sailing\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing Positive at the Port Before Disney Cruise Line Sailing"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

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What Happens if You End Up Testing Positive for Covid at the Port on Your Disney Cruise Embarkation Day<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n

To celebrate the start of 2022, we decided to go on a short Disney Cruise Line<\/a> out of Galveston. Our family is vaccinated and the adults are boostered. Still as a family of 4, with the prevalence of Omicron this holiday season, we did not know if the odds would \u201cbe ever in our favor.\u201d

We wanted testing to be a non-traumatic event, so we coached the kids that it would be a-ok if one of us tested positive at the port (because if one of us tested positive it was totally going to be a kid and I did not want them thinking they had ruined the family trip.) Our back up plan in the event of a positive port test was to come home and watch Encanto<\/a> (which we had been purposefully NOT watching on Disney+ so that we could watch it for the first time in the Buena Vista Theater on the Wonder) and order pizza.

To preface this, we live within a 1-hour drive of the Galveston port<\/a>. If this cruise would have included flights, we would have tested at home before departing to the airport. Since we were in driving distance, we decided to forgo unrequired at home testing and all were feeling healthy.<\/p>\r\n

Embarkation Day<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n

Fast forward to embarkation day. We drive to the port and park. Our family can see the Disney Wonder at the port and she looks great! Now we get in line for our 11am port arrival time. Next we go through testing; we go through security and on to the test results waiting lounge where an usher is directing families in our arrival time bracket to separated groups of chairs (one family group to one chair group). After about 30 min, the families around us began to get their results. Some gave spirited and relieved cheers when they were cleared to board \u2013 it is definitely a bit stressful.<\/p>\r\n

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Port of Galveston: Disney Cruise Line covid test results waiting area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Our family and the family in front of us had a bit of a delay (just a few minutes) getting our results compared to the families around us. We got a voicemail from Inspire<\/a> (see the pic of the garbled voice to text translation; the recording was much better), the onsite testing group, and the results monitor displaying our reservation ID said to proceed \u201cto the Inspire Service Desk\u201d instead of to proceed to \u201cBoarding\u201d. Uh-oh \u2013 was one of our tests inconclusive or was one of us positive?!<\/p>\r\n

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Garbled voice-to-text notification<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

The Consultation and Testing Positive at the Port\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n

We proceeded to the Inspire service desk which as just a few steps away. They were speaking with someone in front of us and another family was queued behind us. The woman managing the Inspire desk looked up our reservation and asked us to follow her to a set of consultation booths located at one end of the test results waiting area. Once in our booth, a physician came in shortly after and ID\u2019d us then let us know that one member of our party had indeed tested positive for Covid\u2026and it was me!! What a bummer!! (Insert parental guilt here.) We took a moment to notice that it was not just us, the other booths had other families in them going through the exact same thing!<\/p>\r\n

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Yep, everyone had a negative test…except me!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n


After the physician left, a member of the Disney Cruise Line \u00a0operations team came right in to speak with us. He regretfully said that we would not be allowed to board the ship and that Disney would be happy to either refund our full cruise fare to the original form of payment or to issue us a Future Cruise Credit. We opted for the refund, and were provided with a letter of documentation stating this.<\/p>\r\n

What Happened Next\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n

The operation teams member also asked a few questions.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n